"It is well
know that since the destruction of the Holy Temple, our prayer
takes the place of the sacrifices which were offered there, as it
is written,
"The prayer
of our lips shall replace the oxen of the sacrifice" (Hoshea 14:3).
Our
three daily prayers correspond to the daily burnt offerings. Just
as a sacrifice was rendered invalid by undirected thoughts, so too
is our prayer.
When a man
stands in prayer before his Creator, the Evil Inclination (Yetzer
Hara)
wants nothing more than to confuse him and introduce all manner of
strange thoughts into his head. How is it possible to stand in
prayer in face of that? In the end, it is unlikely that we
succeeded in replacing the oxen of the sacrifices with our
prayers. What did the chasidim discover to remedy the problem, and
to battle against the ploys of this Evil Inclination, the
Yetzer Hara?
After the
Prayer, the chasidim sit together, raise their glasses in
L'Chayim,
and pour out their hearts in blessing. "Yankele, you should find a
proper shidduch
(match) for your daughter," exclaims one. "Beryl, your business
should have as many customers as the eyes on a potato," exclaims
another.
The
Yetzer Hara, already
regaling in his victory of having confounded the prayer of an
entire congregation of Jews, and seeing them eating and drinking,
concludes that for the meantime their prayer is indeed finished,
and he joyfully retires for the morning.
Now, it is a
clear law in the Shulchan
Aruch (Code of Jewish Law), that prayer can be said in
any language that one understands
(Orach
Chayim 62:2).
Therefore,
when Jews gather together to say
L'Chayim,
and in the absence of the
Yetzer Hara they begin to bless one another from the
depths of their hearts, it is the real prayer, and it goes
straight to the heart of the Master of the World."
-
Rabbi Yisrael of Rizhin
